The Right to Repar movement

Two recent videos on Youtube, about how manufacturers are making stuff that is impossible to fix. Whether it is farm equipment, laptop computers, or laundry machines:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EPYy_g8NzmI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tr3nZpNHWnw

Both videos interview farmers who have expensive equipment that they can no longer fix themselves. And how independent repair shops are "frozen out" from the manufacturer, by them refusing to share repair information with owners and independent repair shops. Such as information on error codes on computer driven equipment.

Several states are trying to pass laws forcing the big farm equipment manufacturers to supply information to end users. The push-back from the industry has been intense. None of these bills have passed yet.

John Deere is now making some of this information available. But as one independent mechanic points-out, it is largely a PR ploy. They are adding so many "ifs" "ands" and "buts" that most owners and non-dealer mechanics still can't get the tech information they need.

As a do-it-yourselfer, who does all my own machinery repairs, it kinda makes be glad I do my farming with a 1948 M and H. And having my 1980's IH 1420 combine!

I too believe it is wrong to do this.

The legislators are heavily lobbied (paid) by the manufacturers, don't expect too much support.

Interesting. As a tech writer for GM (been retired 14 years), we were required to make all repair information available to dealers and to independents.

You couldn’t repair it even if you had the information most of the time unless you are a computer wizard . Had a 2013 Kenworth that the right front turn signal quit working three different mechanics worked on it including me it had to go to the dealer for a lcm which the dealer wouldn’t tell us where even was .the part was over 2000.00$ Of course they had to run their own diagnostics on the truck again the total bill over 4000.00$

I’m stuck in the middle on this. Work in tech support for an ag manufacturer. Believe me when I say there are many customers out there that should not own a wrench. A few dealers too.

Well I guess buyers know the deal going in before they buy so that is what they got.One of the few things about being my age I have enough good older tractors and equipment to
use way beyond any time I'll be able to use them.

People confuse the "Right to Repair" with free. All the info and equipment one needs to repair modern equipment is out there, just nobody wants to pay for it. A guy in our 4H group is service director for a group of John Deere dealers. He and I have talked about this subject. He said John Deere offers all service info and equipment for sale, but nobody wants to pay for it, and wouldn't know what to do with it if they had it.

(quoted from post at 19:17:37 11/22/20) People confuse the "Right to Repair" with free. All the info and equipment one needs to repair modern equipment is out there, just nobody wants to pay for it. A guy in our 4H group is service director for a group of John Deere dealers. He and I have talked about this subject. He said John Deere offers all service info and equipment for sale, but nobody wants to pay for it, and wouldn't know what to do with it if they had it.

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I work at a CaseIH dealership. The service manuals are available to purchase to whoever wants to pay the price and a program is in place to allow customers to have them and access to information on the equipment that they own.

A lot of the information in those videos are a bit inaccurate and more than a little exaggerated about the restrictions.

The hard core right to repair people want all of that provided at no cost to the customer, but as a dealer we have to pay hefty prices to keep and maintain that equipment and access that we are required by contract to have.

There is also a lot of pirated diagnostic equipment and programs out there.

If the new administration gets in it will not matter. You will all be drinking the free bubble up and eating the rainbow stew.

Well said there Merle.

Maybe the solution is to not buy their products?

Most tradesmen really hate working on things after an owner has tried to fix something himself. Often a homeowner will try to fix something and FUBAR it, then call in a professional to fix his mistakes (BTDT myself as a homeowner). The tradesman first has to figure out and undo the homeowner's fixes before the actual repair can begin. This adds extra cost to the job all the while the homeowner is crying "I already did 90 percent of the work for you!" Some guys can FUBAR things worse than a fire.

I can understand the farmer's frustration, but IMHO, I really doubt that few if any are anywhere near qualified or capable of debugging the software if they did have access to it. Software shutdowns are often in place to prevent damage to expensive mechanical parts. Who pays for those additional mechanical damages after a farmer bypasses those shutdowns: the manufacturer, the dealer or the farmer? The long term solution in "right-to-repair" states may be to only lease the most complicated equipment rather than sell it in those states until they are in use a few years and are mostly debugged.

Legislation continues to be passed to protect the availability of the information. I agree that it should not be free though. Unfortunately, signing up for access to all of the different OEM's data portals is very expensive and many of them are subscription based services -> recurring expense.

https://me-mag.com/blogs/item/46763-a-victory-for-right-to-repair

So you must think farmers are working in a dirt floor shed with a single 60 watt bulb?
Have you ever been in a BTO's shop or even a medium size operator?
Many of these shps are equal or better than the dealers shop.
I am saying that many are qualified.

littlefarmer said:

Two recent videos on Youtube, about how manufacturers are making stuff that is impossible to fix. Whether it is farm equipment, laptop computers, or laundry machines:

Both videos interview farmers who have expensive equipment that they can no longer fix themselves. And how independent repair shops are "frozen out" from the manufacturer, by them refusing to share repair information with owners and independent repair shops. Such as information on error codes on computer driven equipment.

Several states are trying to pass laws forcing the big farm equipment manufacturers to supply information to end users. The push-back from the industry has been intense. None of these bills have passed yet.

John Deere is now making some of this information available. But as one independent mechanic points-out, it is largely a PR ploy. They are adding so many "ifs" "ands" and "buts" that most owners and non-dealer mechanics still can't get the tech information they need.

As a do-it-yourselfer, who does all my own machinery repairs, it kinda makes be glad I do my farming with a 1948 M and H. And having my 1980's IH 1420 combine!

Click to expand...

This three year old post showed today up in the related articles list in the new YT format. I have not heard much about the right to repair movement lately. Some states have passed right to repair laws, have they had much effect?

ss55 said:

This three year old post showed today up in the related articles list in the new YT format. I have not heard much about the right to repair movement lately. Some states have passed right to repair laws, have they had much effect?

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As of yet, none of the laws have pushed the boundary beyond the resources that were already available.